In keeping with the secrecy that shrouded its acquisition of VUVOX last June, eBay quietly ended a private beta of the company’s multimedia presentation technology during the past several weeks and opened the site publicly without fanfare.
Richer presentations promote commerce, says Dane Howard
VUVOX does something interesting for the eBay auction site. It spiffs things up. Now sellers can create attractive collages of their wares using photos, video, text and music. And they can link them to their listings
The aim is to replace static photographs with richer, interactive presentations and increase sales, both for merchants and the Internet market place.
One-third of eBay listings are created with third-party tools, says VUVOX co-founder Dane Howard. Now there is an alternative.
The site creates something akin to a slideshow, with video clips, written explanations, photos and audio material placed next to each other, or even layered one on top of another. “Richer media for commerce is a very important thing,” says Howard, user experience interface designer at eBay. “You can enable stories to be told about products.”
He said the site was part of an effort at eBay to improve the buying experience.
But VUVOX isn’t just for eBay. Publishers, journalists and companies promoting products or events are invited to use it, Howard said.
Oh, by the way, eBay still isn’t saying what it spent for VUVOX.
